County preview: Hampshire v Derbyshire YB40

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

We have a fourteen-man squad for tomorrow’s game against Hampshire, one that sees a return for Dan Redfern. It reads:

Chesney HughesWes DurstonPaul BorringtonShivnarine ChanderpaulWayne MadsenDan RedfernRichard JohnsonJonathan ClarePeter BurgoyneDavid WainwrightTom KnightTim GroenewaldMark TurnerMark Footitt

The final eleven will, as always, be decided by the wicket, but my initial thoughts would see the omission of Redfern, a spinner and a seamer. Chesney Hughes’ shoulder injury has cost us a very useful one-day bowler and without him we only have one bowler, Wes Durston, in the top six. As we wouldn’t want to go with a straight five bowlers, the likelihood is that Johnson will bat six and the bowlers/all-rounders will be from 7 to 11.

One place is likely to be between Tom Knight and Peter Burgoyne, while I suspect that Tim Groenewald may be rested ahead of the Somerset game on Friday. It will be a decent side, but they will be up against strong opposition, with Carberry, Vince and Adams all good players. Neil McKenzie adds international class, as does Sohail Tanvir and on their own turf Hampshire will take some beating. A repetition of last week’s effort against Essex will do nicely though.

They’re good enough. Self-belief is the key.